I think Starcraft has enough story and character development by now that its identity is more than just the mechanics that it started with.

I can imagine that, but I don’t think anyone but RTS fans know that.
I feel like, if they want to ‘bring it back’ as a brand, they would need to do an RTS game with all the marketing and such, to please the fans and bring it back into the public’s memory, and then they could follow it up with a non-RTS spinoff.

If they don’t do it like this, they’ll likely have another debacle like with Diablo Immortals, where fans are waiting for a full-fledged title in that genre and they’re announcing something that’s just not that.